Homeless and Housing Resource Network contributing writer Darby Penney charts the work that has led up to the inauguration of the How’s Nashville campaign to end chronic homelessness by reaching out to diverse stakeholders and building a sense of common purpose across service systems.

How’s Nashville, a broad-based community initiative to end chronic homelessness, successfully housed and supported 545 formerly homeless individuals in its first year of operation, according to Steven Samra, a member of the city’s Metropolitan Homelessness Commission, which started the campaign in June 2013. Almost 200 people were housed during the first 100 days.

Working in collaboration with the national 100,000 Homes Campaign, How’s Nashville was kicked off with a three-day effort, called Registry Week, in which teams of staff and volunteers surveyed Nashville’s homeless residents using the Vulnerability Index Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool (VI-SPDAT). This instrument grew out of research conducted by Dr. Jim O'Connell for Boston's Healthcare for the Homeless organization, which determined specific health conditions that led to the premature death of homeless persons. The survey reached 469 people in Nashville, of whom 222, or 47%, were identified as vulnerable or at risk of premature death on the streets.

Based on the survey results, a by-name list of those in highest need was compiled, and those individuals were given priority for immediate services using a Housing First approach. This was supplemented by providing the newly housed people with Critical Time Intervention (CTI) through a contract with Centerstone, a major local behavioral health care provider. CTI is a time-limited model of case management that provides the most intensive services during the first three months a person is housed, when people’s adjustment to their new living arrangements is most acute; interactions are scaled back as people become accustomed to their new living situations.

Samra notes that How’s Nashville’s first-year success stands in sharp contrast to an earlier local effort in 2009, which was not successful due to lack of community readiness and organizational collaborations. In one case, 27 residents of a large homeless encampment were successfully housed, and all of them lost their housing within the first year. “Where we failed in 2009 was that we did not have strong community readiness, and resources were not well-aligned to provide the wraparound services people needed,” he said. “We hadn’t raised enough awareness in the community, and services were very siloed.”

By contrast, the work leading up to the inauguration of the How’s Nashville campaign focused on developing a strong team of local leaders who had not necessarily worked together in the past, educating them about the tools and resources needed to make a concerted effort to end homelessness, and building a sense of mission and shared values among the community partners. In addition, there was a grassroots fundraising campaign that quickly raised $75,000 to help with expenses that were not covered by various government funds, which brought more positive media attention to How’s Nashville.

Other important contributions to the success of the campaign included development of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the city’s Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency to set aside a percentage of HUD Section 8 housing vouchers for people on How’s Nashville’s priority list. In addition, a major local developer was recruited as a campaign partner, and he reached out to other developers, who agreed to donate 1% of new rental units to the campaign.

How’s Nashville succeeded in mobilizing community resources to house people at the rate of 45 per month during its first year, almost tripling the rate from the previous year. Some of those housed in the past year were people who were back on the street after the earlier efforts in 2009. What made this possible? Steven Samra believes that the Metropolitan Homelessness Commission’s ability to reach out to diverse stakeholders and build a sense of common purpose was a vital ingredient. “For the first time in Nashville, this campaign really brought people and agencies together across service systems,” he said. “The energy has been catching!”

What needs still exist? As How’s Nashville continues to move forward in its efforts toward ending homelessness, Samra would like to see the development of peer support services provided by formerly homeless people. “We need to put more emphasis on the intersection between homelessness, recovery, and peer support,” he said.

ReferencesHerman, D. B., & Mandiberg, J. M. (2010). Critical time intervention: Model description and implications for the significance of timing in social work interventions. Research on Social Work Practice, 20(5), 502-508.